"Sadly nobody yells "Spoon""

Freedom Force is a perfect example of why more companies need free demos. When I heard FF was being released I thought it was an interesting concept but didn’t care enough to buy it. Flash-forward a year, I’m bored, stumble across the demo, and two days later I’ve bought the game. I’m not a comic book reader but I can safely say that Freedom Force is a quality game so it appeals to non-comic fans and if you are a reader and haven’t played the game, you’re missing out greatly. The game takes place in 1962 so the environment is based around the early years of the mainstream publishers and their heroes. The game is rife with commies, to be taken humorously sexism and racism, and good old fashion nuclear paranoia. Characters spout cheesy slogans, action words pop up during fights, and many of the characters bear an almost infringing resemblance to mainstream heroes. The funniest being Antman (bitten by an energy imbued ant, can climb walls, has the strength proportional to an ant, and walks around saying “Anybody call for an ant?”). The villains shine as well. Your first adversary is Nuclear Winter, a capitalist hating Russian that steals an atomic bomb to blow up America. Later you run through just about every comic book cliché with villains impersonating and framing heroes, brainwashing, time travelers, a rhyming villain, and my favorite villain Mr. Mechanical, a deranged architect that builds an army of giant robots to crush hideous “modern” architecture, and to top it off he mocks Frank Lloyd Wright and other famous architects as he lays waste to fair Patriot City.
Some major bugs prevent FF from being truly great. Quite often the screen will turn black, making you save, quit, and reload your game to get the graphics back. In side missions more often than not you will beat one wave but the next never appears. Thus you have to quit and lose your score. There’s one mission that I’ve given up on because enemies just stop appearing. It isn’t over and it’s not me because I’ve scoured the board looking for enemies and it doesn’t always happen in the same wave. All the side missions just consist of beating up repeating enemies. It’s really not that fun. The BIGGEST annoyance in the game is the lack of team AI. You can command up to four members at a time, but they’re brainless. Enemies can walk up and just start beating the hell out of your team and they’ll just stand there. Luckily commanding characters is a quick process, but it still adds up to a major nuisance. There are also some major control bugs. Characters will have problems doing the simplest of things like attacking the enemy in front of you. You have to move your character away, move it back, and then start attacking. Of course by then the villains got in about five free hits.
One of the reasons I bought the game was for the Hero Creation tool. Theoretically you build a hero, give it powers, and then you enlist them in the main campaign if you can afford it. However, it’s the most user unfriendly system ever conceived. Unless you have a 3-D editing program, you’re stuck with drab models the game comes with or using something off the Internet. It should have just been a simple click and choose accessory system (want a hat? choose from the list, want a cape? just add it). So you don’t have a 3-D program, then you can use a photo-imaging program to at least color you character. But unless you want to spend hours shading and drawing with your mouse, you’re either going to just be stuck with a cartoon-ish flat colored hero or a simple recoloring of a game or Internet character. Also the game is really lacking in the female characters. There’s only two built-in models (compared to seven male models) and only a few, horrible voice packs (compared to a range of good male voice packs). Keep in mind the game also includes zero guidance, so you’re on your own creating.
Despite it’s many cons, Freedom Force is still an enjoyable game and at a fairly low price (under $15) you do get your money’s worth. The campaign mode is a decent length, not long but not short, but at that price if it’s all you ever use, it’s still a fair deal.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/03